6 Architects: Building in New York

Six celebrated architects, including Bjarke Ingels, Liz Diller and Daniel Libeskind, here talk about what it’s like to build architecture that both matters and works in the iconic city of New York – from Ground Zero to The High Line.

“A building should not look like Lady Gaga,” says American architect Robert A.M. Stern (b. 1939), who feels that the city is made up of background and foreground buildings, and that it is important to learn how to let the buildings work together instead of isolating them.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels (b. 1974) stresses how important it is to care about and understand the people one is designing for: “Architects need to re-insert architecture as something that people are interested in – not just architects – something that is important for society.”

“In a sense it was a non-site without ground to stand on.” American architect and founding partner of Snøhetta, Craig Dykers (b. 1961), talks about the challenging experience of building the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at Ground Zero.

According to American architect Thom Mayne (b. 1944), architecture is essentially “a way of thinking, exploring, inventing, making and participating in the world.”

American architect Liz Diller (b. 1954) discusses her fascinating project The High Line, which is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated plus 30 feet above the streets of Manhattan’s West Side.

“People stopped me: ‘Thank you Mr. Libeskind. You delivered what you promised’. They didn’t say anything else. They shook my hand. I thought that was the best compliment I could get.” Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind (b. 1946) shares his personal story of getting to work on such a poignant project as Ground Zero.

All interviews by Marc-Christoph Wagner, Kasper Bech Dyg and Jesper Bundgaard/Out of Sync.

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